GEOG 1700

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Chantae Arroyo

Photograph by Peter Essick

POLLUTION
Welcome back! Thank you for tuning in to Channel 12 Where you have hard hitting questions, we have
hard hitting answers. My name is Chantae Arroyo and in todays topic we are uncovering everything to do
with pollution.
For those viewers who are just tuning in, pollution is the presence in or introduction into the environment
of a substance or thing that has harmful or poisonous effects. Pollution occurs in different forms; air,
water, soil, radioactive, noise, heat/thermal and light. Pollution presents itself when pollutants
contaminate the natural surroundings; which brings about changes that affect our normal lifestyles
adversely.
We will see you right back after our commercial break- where we will be reviewing questions from our
viewers.
And we are back! Thank you for staying with us. If you missed out on our topic from our earlier segment,
we are touching on the environmental issue of pollution. We have viewer questions here to address today:

Veronica writes:
What is the root cause of pollution?
Veronica, excellent question! Similar to the types of pollution varying, the causes vary also. Earlier we
addressed the different types of pollution, and here we can review the root cause of one of the most
dangerous types of pollution.
Air Pollution: the most prominent and dangerous form of pollution. It occurs due to many reasonsexcessive burning of fuel which is a necessity of our daily lives for cooking, driving, and other industrial
activities; release a large amount of chemical substances in the air every day. Its these things that pollute
the air.
Smoke from chimneys, factories, vehicles or burning of wood basically occurs due to coal burning; this
releases Sulphur dioxide into the air making it toxic. The effects of air pollution are evident too. Release
of Sulphur dioxide and hazardous gases into the air causes global warming and acid rain; which in turn
have increased temperatures, erratic rains and droughts worldwide; making it tough for the animals to
survive. We breathe in every polluted particle from the air; resulting in an increase in many respiratory
issues among the population.

Picture Source: galerie.coloritu.com

Richard writes:
Where is pollution occurring?
Richard, this is an interesting question- because among many statistics there are leading countries and
cities that are said to have the highest pollution-related issues and/or the greatest pollution related effects
on their effected areas.
Despite speculation, unfortunately pollution occurs everywhere and is effecting our entire environment.
While everyone is exposed to pollution, we find a common trend in the higher effected areas such as,
large cities world-wide or those that could be considered over populated. Certain cities that are rapidly
growing such as Beijing, New Delhi, and Los Angeles should be taking term to this particular issue
because the need to ease urban pollution is acute.

Tracey writes:
Why is pollution occurring?
Tracey - Scientifically, pollution occurs because of an unwelcome concentration of substances that are
beyond the environments capacity to handle. In and undisturbed ecosystem, all substances are processes
through an intricate network of biogeochemical cycles, such as the nitrogen and carbon cycles. During
these cycles, substances are taken up by plants, move through the food chain to larger and more complex
organism, and when the latter die, are decomposed (broken down) into simpler forms to be used again
when they are taken up by plants.
Biodegradable substances are those that can be broken down by the environments biological systems.
Pollution occurs when the environment becomes overloaded beyond the capacity of these normal
processing systems.

Graph Source: 2014 US Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report

Sierra writes:
What is being done or can be done to handle pollution?
Sierra, I am glad you wanted an explanation of this issue. I personally feel that this question is one that
needs to be answered and brought to the attention of every person. Its our population that needs to take
the steps in order to improve our air quality and achieve the necessary results to resolving the issue of
pollution.
The problem goes beyond respiratory health and quality of life. A recent study published in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that in India, short-lived air pollutants such as
ozone and black carbon, along with the changing climate, cut crop yields in half.
Los Angeles offers an example of what cities can do to reduce pollution. Long notorious for its smog the
car-centric city has seen some air pollutants decline by 98% over the past 50 years, even though an

increasing population has used more gasoline. Rules to make cars and fuels cleaner helped achieve the
reductions, but the city still struggles with air quality issues. Because of this, many people are requesting
to reduce tailpipe emissions from vehicles, speed the transition away from coal, place stronger rules on
industries, and a push for binding international targets. Essentially, it is a group effort that needs to take
action by many in order to follow through.
Lets open up the discussion to our viewers In the drive to build smarter cities around the world, what is
the most important thing we should do to tackle air pollution? Tune in next time. From Channel 12 I am
Chantae Arroyo reporting to you. Goodnight.

Sources
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/energy/great-energy-challenge/bigenergy-question/what-step-is-crucial-in-fighting-cities-air-pollution/
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/search/?q=pollution
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Pollution
http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/envfacts/facts/pollution2.htm
http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/PollutionTypes.php
http://www3.epa.gov/airtrends/aqtrends.html